Due to the nature of crowd testing, the testers themselves range from inexperienced students through to industry professionals with some spare time on their hands. For all involved, it’s a great opportunity to work on a diverse range of projects and earn extra income – but how can you ensure you get the most out of it? Here are ten things that every crowd tester should know: get them right and you’re on your way to success.

Understand the requirement

Each test cycle includes a requirement, which describes the purpose of the cycle and what the client wants to get out of it. The bugs you identify may not be considered valid if they don’t fall within the scope of the test cycle, so be sure to always read through all requirements and only proceed when you have a strong understanding of them.

Detailed bug reports

Your attention to detail when submitting bug reports relates to the previous point about the quality of each test. It’s vital for crowd testers to provide a thorough report and all the information required to reproduce the defect, otherwise it’s likely to be rejected. Make sure you create a clear, step-by-step report that gives the developer a clear idea of the issue.

Pay attention to other testers

Avoid diving straight into a test and doing your own thing as you navigate around the project. Keep an eye on what your fellow testers are doing, especially those who are on top of the leaderboards. It’s a great way to stay aware of what other testers are focusing on and what may have been missed.

Quality over quantity

It’s a given that clients will want to identify any potential bugs during the crowd testing process, but it’s not worth sacrificing the quality of the test just to get a bigger number. When testing, make the effort to ensure each bug you report is likely to be marked valid – a high acceptance rate reflects well on you.

Test with purpose

To be an effective tester, you should find purpose in everything you do. Rather than clicking around wildly and waiting for things to break, you want to ensure you have a clear understanding of every function and how they should or should not operate. This can be the difference between a successful crowd tester and an ineffectual one.

Prioritise important bugs

Whenever you are identifying bugs, remember that almost no apps are delivered bug-free. As such, it’s often not worth spending great time and effort reporting a bug that has little to no impact on the developer or the end user. This skill will build over time as you gain a sixth sense for testing best practice.

Remember the end user

Sometimes, it’s easy to lose sight of the real-world context surrounding a particular website or application. Different users interact with software in different ways and for different reasons, so put yourself in the shoes of a user and visualise how they would progress – it will help you think of more test cases along the way.

Avoid a cookie-cutter approach

Every application is different, as is its target audience. Throughout the entire test cycle, you need to continually focus on the purpose of the application and the context surrounding it. Otherwise, you’ll limit your ability to create test cases and execute them effectively.

Follow test cycles

Even if you think you might skip a particular test cycle, keep an eye on it as it progresses. This will help you maintain overall awareness of what’s happening through crowdsprint and will ensure you never miss any potential opportunities to work.

Learn as you go

One of the best things about crowd testing is how it allows you to build experience on a diverse range of projects. As you get better, make an effort to learn from any errors or inefficiencies of the past and you’ll accelerate improvement as a result.